Contagious diseases, like water, know no borders. They do not distinguish between peoples, countries and religions, nor do they recognize conflicts. They do not observe treaties, armistices or ceasefires. They affect all states and individuals, posing health, economic and social challenges to all.

International regulation of contagious diseases by the World Health Organization is not obligatory and is dependent on the good will and openness of states in providing vital and timely information in order to enable the organization to take the necessary measures to halt the pandemic.

International legal issues such as the potential violation of human rights and freedom of movement arise in the face of travel and trade restrictions imposed by states as a means of halting the spread of the virus.

In the Middle East, Israelis and Palestinians have developed frameworks for cooperation in preventing the spread of contagious diseases. Such cooperation should not be prejudiced by incitement, hatred and hostility.

Collaboration, openness, good faith and the genuine need to protect and heal the populations of the area in the face of the Corona pandemic should lead to the realization that good neighborly relations have the potential to enhance mutual trust and confidence between Palestinians and Israelis, as a basis for good faith and peace between them.

Effect of Corona on the International Community and the Individual

Within less than two months, the present Corona pandemic has extended to all corners of the earth and poses a series of unique challenges to all spheres of national and international society.

On the international level, members of the international community – whether states or international organizations – are called upon to follow the warnings, instructions and professional advice of the World Health Organization, and to demonstrate the essential qualities of good faith, cooperation, honesty and openness in order to fight the Corona virus on the global level.

On the internal, national level, individual states face the challenges of urging, and even obliging, their citizens to abide by strict isolation instructions in order to halt the internal spread of the virus – all this while trying to cope with the provision of essential medical services and facilities to treat those suffering from Corona. These challenges are compounded by the resulting economic and social dilemmas posed by mass-unemployment, the stifling of social contact and the need to explain to, and educate, the public. All these constitute virtually insurmountable challenges – even to the most technologically and economically advanced states.

On the level of the individual, the challenge is no less onerous, fearful, confusing and frustrating, especially with the unending rise in the numbers of fatalities and of those infected, with little hope of an end in sight, and the psychological effect all this has on each and every person and family.

Contagious diseases, like water, know no borders. They do not distinguish between peoples, countries and religions, nor do they recognize conflicts. They do not observe treaties, armistices or ceasefires. They are neither Christian, Muslim nor Jewish. They do not care about United Nations resolutions. Water just flows – or it doesn’t, and diseases just spread – unless prevented. Necessity and scarcity force countries to acknowledge that while they may argue and even fight over many issues, no one can emerge victorious over disease and water.

By the same token, being so vital and essential to humanity, the challenges of fighting and controlling the spread of diseases, as well as the provision of water, both have the unique and common qualities and capabilities of serving as catalysts and as potential factors in encouraging and enhancing peace and cooperation between countries, peoples, regions and continents, for the good of humanity.

With the advance of technology and development throughout the world, there is a tendency to overlook a very basic truth of life’s sustainability. Society can survive without many things – diamonds, gold, zinc, oil and other minerals and resources – but humanity, at all levels, cannot exist without two essential elements – water and health.

Thus, thanks to aviation and maritime travel, the Coronavirus that emerged in a remote corner of world has, within less than two months, become the blight of most of the world.

International Requirements and Regulations

The World Health Organization (WHO), composed of 194 member states, with more than 150 regional offices across six regions, was established in 1948 with the objective, as stated in its constitution, of “the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health.”

The WHO constitution lists such activities as directing and coordinating authority on international health work, establishing and maintaining effective collaboration with the governments, international organizations, professional groups and such other institutions as may be deemed appropriate; assisting governments, upon request, in strengthening health services, and furnishing technical assistance and, in emergencies, necessary aid upon the request or acceptance of governments.1

On March 11, 2020, after having maintained, since December 2019, that the Corona epidemic constituted a “public health emergency of international concern,” the WHO declared it to have developed into a pandemic, considering its global spread.2

The process for dealing with the international spread of diseases was set down in the WHO’s 2005 “International Health Regulations” (IHR), based on the experience of the SARS epidemic in China of the 1980s.

These regulations serve as the basis for all WHO activity in the present Corona pandemic. Their purpose is “to prevent, protect against, control and provide a public health response to the international spread of disease in ways that are commensurate with and restricted to public health risks, and which avoid unnecessary interference with international traffic and trade.” They also “provide the legal basis for important health documents applicable to international travel and transport and sanitary protections for the users of international airports, ports, and ground crossings.”3

While the IHR places a moral obligation on states to provide all relevant public health information and to report any event that possibly constitutes an infectious disease in the course of 24 hours, from the international legal point of view, the IHR are not mandatory, and have the status of recommendations only. As such, they are basically dependent on the willingness of states to cooperate by providing, in good faith, open, accurate and timely information.

Breaches of the IHR’s obligations do not lead to sanctions, and given the non-binding nature of recommendations, there are no direct legal consequences for their disregard.4

An additional, serious international issue is the question of the advisability and effectiveness of travel or trade restrictions to countries experiencing outbreaks of Corona.

According to a recent WHO travel advisory dated February 29, 2020:

[E]vidence shows that restricting the movement of people and goods during public health emergencies is ineffective in most situations and may divert resources from other interventions. Furthermore, restrictions may interrupt needed aid and technical support, may disrupt businesses, and may have negative social and economic effects on the affected countries. However, in certain circumstances, measures that restrict the movement of people may prove temporarily useful, such as in settings with few international connections and limited response capacities.5

Clearly, this issue is connected to considerations of human rights in applying restrictions on travel and trade and has already brought about claims that such restrictions may constitute violations of the basic rights of the public to travel freely.6

This question was discussed in a legal opinion by an Australian law firm published on February 17, 2020, entitled “Legal consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak on contracts: force majeure and frustration”:7

[M]any states have reacted with robust mitigation measures, including closing borders, implementing a range of travel bans and engaging a myriad of internal domestic health and wellbeing procedures.

We are already seeing impacts of COVID-19 (and the mitigation measures) on domestic and international trade and commerce, capital flows, tourism, and migration.

In a world where markets and economies are intrinsically linked, where corporations and supply chains operate across hundreds of borders, and where the world is connected financially, digitally and socially like never before, a pandemic (or anything close to that) presents a significant financial and economic risk.

Corona in the Middle East

With such an immense challenge to the sustainability and maintenance of life due to the present Corona pandemic, the countries and peoples of the Middle East have no choice but to bridge political, religious and historic gaps between them.

Health, like water, won’t wait for peace to emerge. But through cooperation and mutual acknowledgment of the dangers inherent in the spread of contagion to their populations, states and peoples must work together.

As stated by the Israeli director of “EcoPeace Middle East,” Gidon Bromberg, in an interview with the Al-Monitor website:

The global Coronavirus outbreak is…a stark reminder of the need to deepen regional cooperation on environmental issues. Building walls and barriers misleads the public into thinking that one side can successfully disengage from the other….The science of ecology and biology is there to remind us that we can never disengage from a shared environment.8

Similarly, in an article entitled “History of Cooperation in Health and Medicine Between Israel and Palestine,” published in a 2008 report of the “Palestinian/Israeli Health Initiative” by Susan J. Blumenthal and Stephanie Safdi:

Cooperation in the health field is part of a broader spectrum of people-to-people exchanges that operate in the region to build trust and understanding while delivering needed services in spite of a tense political climate. Just as diseases can cross borders easily today, so can solutions, making health an important bridge for building partnerships, trust and cooperation among Palestinians and Israelis.9

As such, the struggle against the spread of the Coronavirus must now set aside hostility, suspicion, incitement and hatred, and serve as a central factor in building mutual confidence, regional and international unity, assistance and cooperation.

Precedents for such cooperation in the sphere of water may be found in several of the documents of the Middle East peace negotiation process between Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians:

The 1991 Madrid Middle East Peace Conference established a Multilateral Water Resources Working Group chaired by the U.S., with Japan and the EU as co-organizers.10

The 1993 Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements, in its third annex dealing with cooperation in economic and development programs, established a water development program for cooperation and management of water resources.11

Similarly, the 1995 Israel-Palestinian Interim Agreement (“Oslo II”), Annex III, Article 40, acknowledged Palestinian water rights and set out an Israeli-Palestinian supervisory regime for freshwater management, sewage control and sustainable usage of the available resources.13

In these instruments, the Israelis, Jordanians and Palestinians acknowledged the dire shortage of water and the need to develop additional sources through regional and international cooperation and joint pollution prevention.14

In the field of contagious diseases, the basis for cooperation between the Palestinians and Israel was set out in the same 1995 Interim Agreement between them. In Article 17 of the third annex to this agreement, – the Protocol Concerning Civil Affairs – Israel and the PLO agreed and committed themselves to “exchange information regarding epidemics and contagious diseases, [to] cooperate in combating them and…develop methods for exchange of medical files and documents” (Paragraph 6).

They also agreed that “the health systems of Israel and of the Palestinian side will maintain good working relations in all matters, including mutual assistance in providing first aid in cases of emergency, medical instruction, professional training and exchange of information” (Paragraph 7).15

In fact, over the years, Israeli and Palestinian health professionals have been collaborating effectively to prevent and treat disease. A review of collaborative projects in the 1990s published by experts at Al-Quds University and the JDC-Brookdale and JDC-Israel institutes in Jerusalem states:

Over two years the Israeli and Palestinian researchers studied 148 cooperative projects that brought together 67 mostly non-governmental organizations and some 4,000 Palestinians and Israelis in the field of health care and disease prevention. Most participants in these health programs – Jews, Muslims, and Christians with secular and religious backgrounds and left-wing and right-wing personal views — declared that they were very satisfied with the outcome and wanted to continue working together.16

In 2005, the two medical assistance organizations – the Palestinian Red Crescent Society and Israel’s Magen David Adom – signed a Memorandum of Understanding and an agreement on operational arrangements aimed at enhancing cooperation when carrying out their respective humanitarian mandates, facilitating movement of ambulances and patients, exchanging information, knowledge and experience, and cooperation in blood bank issues.17

While the extent of joint Palestinian and Israeli health collaboration has wavered over the years due to travel limitations, security issues and political tensions between the respective leaderships and peoples, the realization that health and medical collaboration is nevertheless essential and often vital has always existed and comes to the fore in crisis situations such as the current Corona crisis.

With the current outset and progression of the Coronavirus in the Middle East, Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin, in a phone conversation with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas concerning the Coronavirus pandemic, called for the two sides to cooperate to confront the disease. “The world is dealing with a crisis that does not distinguish between people or where they live,” stated Rivlin. “The cooperation between us is vital to ensure the health of both Israelis and Palestinians….Our ability to work together in times of crisis is also testament to our ability to work together in the future for the good of us all.”18

In a March 11, 2020, article in the Christian Science Monitor entitled, “‘Something human’: Mideast fight against virus elicits rare unity,” the newspaper’s Israel correspondent, Joshua Mitnick, recalled previous instances of cooperation between Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian health authorities through the establishment, fifteen years ago, of an organization to promote joint public health initiatives – the Middle East Consortium on Infectious Disease Surveillance. The organization sponsored joint epidemiological training for doctors and nurses and promoted research collaboration and a regional network of public health professionals.

Regarding current cooperation to deal with the Coronavirus, Mitnick states:

Palestinian health care professionals have received training in Israeli hospitals, Israeli labs have analyzed Palestinian COVID-19 diagnostic tests, and doctors on both sides are sharing data.

Despite decades of arguing over where to draw a border, the spread of COVID-19 has highlighted how Israel and the Palestinian areas in the West Bank are in fact one unit in the battle to preserve public health. Handling the challenge requires the sides to collaborate and resist the tendency to focus first on the political.

The collaboration on the Coronavirus includes the health ministries of both governments, along with the Israeli military liaison. Israel in recent days delivered 250 virus test kits to the West Bank and held training sessions for Palestinian medical workers on how to protect themselves. Israel’s Civil Administration, the military-run authority in Palestinian areas of the West Bank, promised to supply medical equipment and training as needed.19

Admitting the potential for enhancing positive relations between Israelis and Palestinians, Associate Director-General of Israel’s Health Ministry Dr. Itamar Grotto, in referring to the cooperation, indeed confirmed that: “This is being done because we don’t have another choice. We have to work together. If you are looking for a positive effect of this event, you could point to this.”

Conclusion

With the realization of the vital importance of cooperation, collaboration, openness, good faith and the genuine need to protect and heal the populations of the area in the face of the Corona pandemic, it is to be hoped that this will lead the way to a greater realization that good neighborly relations have the potential to enhance mutual trust and confidence between Palestinians and Israelis.

Continued incitement to hatred, whether through electronic and social media or by senior Palestinian leaders through such mechanisms as Twitter, even at such an important time as the present, has the potential to prejudice and undermine the sincere efforts by all the professional medical authorities on both sides to defeat the virus, for the benefit of Palestinians, Israelis and the whole region.

Amb. Alan Baker

Amb. Alan Baker is Director of the Institute for Contemporary Affairs at the Jerusalem Center and the head of the Global Law Forum. He participated in the negotiation and drafting of the Oslo Accords with the Palestinians, as well as agreements and peace treaties with Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon. He served as legal adviser and deputy director-general of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as Israel’s ambassador to Canada.